Epic is a card game designed by Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle, the same people who brought you the 2014 hit Star Realms. Epic brings you the gameplay and feel of popular collectible card games but in a small package with a fraction of the cost. In Epic players are playing champion cards such as Kong, Avenging Angel, Crystal Golem and many more. Players are using these characters to attack the opposing player while protecting yourself at the same time. Get your Opponent down to zero health and you win. Does Epic live up to it's name or is this White Wizard Games sophomore slump?

ComponentsEpic does not have many components. The only components are the cards, a rule book, and the box. The cards feel like your standard game cards that would come in a booster pack of your favorite CCG. Big kudos to the artists as the art in this game is extremely well done and adds a much needed feel to the game. The box holds everything and is the same size and shape of a deck box. The rule book is a little small due to it needing to fit inside the box. I found the rules a little confusing and had some minor issues understanding some of the steps. One big issue I had was the fact that nothing is provided to track your health and character buffs that are added during the game. The rule book tells you to make your own and if you run out of token champion cards, you should make up your own on a piece of paper. When I read that it made me feel like I received an incomplete game. While the art is really great, the lack of certain tokens and tracking hurts Epic's components.

Gameplay The gameplay of Epic will remind you of games like Magic and Hearthstone. In Epic players are given 1 gold to use each turn for playing cards. Cards come in two different values, 1 and 0. There are two types of cards that you will play during the game. Events are one time effect cards that have abilities like draw 2 cards. Champion cards are what attack and defend for you. A champion played during your turn can not attack right away unless it has the blitz keyword on the card. Each champion has its own attack and defense number as well as 1 of 4 factions and possibly a special ability.

Each player starts the game with 30 health that other players are trying to reduce to zero. Epic has many ways to determine what cards are in your deck. The first is that each player just gets 30 random cards from the main deck. Other formats include different types of drafting cards till you each have 30 cards or creating your own decks. The rules contain directions on how to set up each type of format. On your turn after have drawn a card and readied any characters used last round, you can play cards, use abilities and attack the opposing player.

When you decide to attack you and your opponent will go into the battle phase. First you as the attacker will choose which champion or group of champions that will be attacking in this phase. Then you can play event cards or use abilities to help with the battle. The defender may then play event cards and abilities to change the battle. If he does so, then, the attacker will have the option to play more events and abilities. Which is followed by the defender having another chance to play events and abilities as well. After that has completed the defender will choose champions to defend with. Then the attacker gets to play even more event cards and abilities if possible followed by the defender. Finally when no more cards are played the champions will attack each other and if the champion's defense is exceeded by the attacker's attack then that champion is discarded. If there are no defending champions then the attack hits the player directly and loses health based on the attack number. After you have finished attacking the next player goes. Turns will continue till one player has no remaining health.

Final Thoughts Epic does what it was designed to do. That is providing the experience of a collectible card game and replicating it into a small card game that requires no extra expenses. This game was designed for the CCG gamer and the tournament scene. I am not really into that scene so this game fell a little flat for me. Also there is a lot of card terminology that experienced CCG players will understand but the new to these type of games will not. Randomly drawing your deck in my opinion leads to one person usually having a far superior deck/hand by chance and can make that format unfair and not fun. Drafting cards provides each player the chance to have good decks and a better game, but also will take awhile to draft all 30 cards. The back and forth during the battle phase can be confusing especially when first playing the game but can also make some interesting situations. If you enjoy Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone or another CCG then this will provide you that fun in a low price. If you want to experience a CCG but do not want the heavy investment then this is for you. If your a board gamer who thought this might be more of a fantasy themed Star Realms then it is not for you because that is not what this game is. The ability to purchase several copies of the game and hold your own tournaments will be appealing to some. I was disappointed in the lack of tokens and a way to track health. Sadly as I am more of a board gamer than CCG player this game just did hold my enjoyment, but I see that it works well for its intended audience. Epic will not be added to my collection.

Taco gives Epic Card Game a rating of...

6.25 out of 10

Pros:+ Compact, low priced game that gives the CCG experience+ Art adds a lot to the game+ Drafting modes and different ways to play

Cons:- Missing tokens and tracking for health- Complicated for those not familiar with CCGs- Rule Book font is a little small due to having it fit in the box